Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is a major study following the development of 10,000 children and families from all parts of Australia. The study commenced in 2004 with two cohorts - families with 4-5 year old children and families with 0-1 year old infants.
Growing Up in Australia is investigating the contribution of children's social, economic and cultural environments to their adjustment and wellbeing. A major aim is to identify policy opportunities for improving support for children and their families and for early intervention and prevention strategies.

Using five waves of LSAC data, this report covers a variety of aspects of the ways in which Australian childrens experiences and environments affect their prospects and progress, from birth to 13 years old.

Technical paper no.17 This paper by Jacqueline Homel and Ben Edwards provides data users with opportunities to use the demographic, social and health information available in LSAC to examine many different issues relating to immunisation and how to match LSAC data with Australian Childhood Immunisation Register.

Technical paper no.16, June 2016 This paper by Kalyca Baker, Brigit Maguire, Galina Daraganova
and Mark Sipthorp describes the linkage process and the structure of the My School data linked to the LSAC data; explains how the data were confidentialised; describes the distribution of schools in the LSAC sample and outlines some considerations about the data that researchers using the My School data linked to the LSAC data file should be aware of.

We are pleased to announce the release of the LSAC Wave 6 data. Wave 6 was conducted in 2014, when the K cohort children were aged 14-15 years old and the B cohort children 10-11 years old. For information on how to apply for access to the data please visit the National Centre for Longitudinal Data website.